OpEd:
Now Is The Time For True America
September 17, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: America, Congress, Democrats, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Republicans
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics
All of the healthcare reform bills have left Senatorial committees, and are not only being addressed-at-large by Senate but are available online for public review. While HR3200 has been flaunted as the probable basis for the compromise bill that turns into law, for better or for worse, this progress from within the Senate marks an important change: all of the proposals, which address insurance company regulations, public options, Medicare, Medicaid, and more, have written, visible, public language. The time for rhetoric, hearsay, and speculation on the nature of the Federal Government’s interest in the health of its people is over – now is the time for true debate, non-partisanship, discussion, and democracy.
The screaming townhall meetings where “concerned” citizens air their irrelevant fears no longer have a place in the equation, no matter how hard extremists on either side wish for more time to behave childishly. The use of public power to manipulate the malleable masses for political or corporate gain, as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin have been wont to do, may still continue at their insistence, but it will no longer be timely. The nonsensical protests, where those participating cannot agree on what exactly they are railing so viciously against, can have their numbers inflated as large as FOX “News” needs them, but their nebulous and shifting “point” has long since been made.
After a brilliantly destructive, embarrassing, and ultimately fruitless campaign by the Republican Party over the summer months to derail healthcare reform and discredit their enemy, President Obama is back in control and no longer interested in attempting to make a partisan effort. The result will be a show of America’s greatest democratic strengths in the coming weeks, as opposed to the demonstration of the country’s absolute, divided, political worst that still lingers at this very moment. The process may not be fast, and the results will not please all citizens or Congressmen, but it is America’s political process at work – the country is not a true free-for-all democracy, and instead prefers a representative method. This method was chosen in the hopes that the few hundred individuals that comprise Congress are more interested in agreement and procedure than endless argument, with the majority of its members hopefully more educated, informed, and generally in a better position than an average citizen to make grand, sweeping policy decisions.
Whether Congress and President Obama can make an effectual change in the world of healthcare and health insurance remains to be seen, but the mere fact that language has been produced from both houses of Congress, and in multiple bills, indicates that progress is being made. Perhaps this publicly-verifiable progress will help calm the extremely vocal minority whose vocal chords must be so very raw after months of shouting, and convince illiterate Congressmen that “the truth is out there.”
Debate, rationality, and compromise are some of the very principles on which the United States was founded – with the hopeful return of these principles to both Washington D.C. and the nation itself, now is the time for True America.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
